{"id":460873,"date":"2026-09-11T20:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T20:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/460873\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T20:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T20:16:15","slug":"california-wildlife-authorities-punished-two-crab-fishermen-for-littering-dozens-of-traps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/460873\/","title":{"rendered":"California Wildlife Authorities Punished Two Crab Fishermen for Littering Dozens of Traps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Leaving crab traps in the ocean not only starves crabs to death, but it can harm other wildlife. Photo: California Department of Fish and Wildlife\/\/Facebook<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The California Fish and Game Commission revoked<\/a> the commercial fishing licenses of two Dungeness crab fishermen for purposefully abandoning dozens of crab traps in Northern California waters, among other offenses. The commission acted on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife\u2019s recommendations and publicly named and shamed the two fishermen \u2014 Darryl Donovan, 66, of Gilroy; and Terry Groat, 60, of Crescent City.<\/p>\n

In Donovan\u2019s case, the Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Enforcement District and U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Humboldt Bay investigated abandoned traps near the Klamath River in Del Norte County after the 2023-2024 season. They found that Donovan had abandoned 107 crab traps, as well as failing to \u201cservice traps in the required 96 hours and submit mandatory fishing reports, and fishing with untagged and improperly marked buoys.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Groat\u2019s case, officers discovered that he had left 87 traps near the Smith River in Del Norte County. They also wrote him up for not servicing the traps, not tagging buoys, not submitting required reports, and killing hundreds of crabs.<\/p>\n

In a comment on the department\u2019s Facebook post<\/a>, Dave Groat, claiming to be the brother of Terry Groat, said his brother couldn\u2019t retrieve the traps because his boat broke down and he\u2019s diabetic.<\/p>\n

According to the California Commercial Fishing Digest<\/a>, it\u2019s prohibited to leave crab buoys, traps, or lines in the water after the end of the Dungeness crab fishing season. They need to be removed from the water by 11:59 p.m. on the last day of the season, which, on the northern coast of California, is July 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who abandon traps not only endanger marine mammals and other wildlife that can become trapped or entangled in derelict gear, but they can also cause shortened fishing seasons for law-abiding fishers who depend on those opportunities for their livelihood,\u201d the Department of Fish and Wildlife said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s hunting, recreational fishing or commercial fishing, the privilege to harvest California\u2019s fish and wildlife requires a high degree of mutual trust between the public and law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaving crab traps in the ocean not only starves crabs to death, but it can harm other wildlife.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,11668,18077,17742],"class_list":["post-460873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-del-norte-county","tag-dungeness-crab","tag-fishing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}